Disaster-proof 'Antillean Gothic' reinvents the shotgun shack

The shotgun shack, or shotgun
house, is a linear dwelling common to the Caribbean and
southern United States, which has been reinvented by Amonle Studio Workshop to be more sustainable and
disaster-proof.

The shotgun shack gets its name from its design -- a linear
series of three to five rooms in a row with no hallways, meaning
that you can fire a shotgun from the front door and the pellets
would fly cleanly out of the back, as all the doors are on the same
side. "Double-barrel" shotgun houses share a central wall.

Amonle's concept, which is called "Antillean
Gothic", keeps the basic design and arrangement of the
structure but lifts it off the ground, adds a second floor for
privacy and extra ventilation, and builds the whole thing out of
materials readily available in the Caribbean -- bamboo, metal mesh, scaffolding poles, corrugated iron sheeting
and halved 55-gallon drums.

The design has been created specifically to be easy to build,
meaning that communities can construct it themselves. It should be
able to stand up to floods, hurricanes and earthquakes, and it
maximises natural light, ventilation and clean water, via an
oversized gutter that can collect rainwater for washing, cleaning
and irrigation.

On top, there's a vertical-axis wind turbine for generating energy, which can
supposedly generate 7,500 kWh per year, though Amonle admits that
budgetry constraints might make it tricky to accomodate in the
plans.

"Antillean Gothic proposes a tropical way of life rooted in the
Caribbean but with an ear and an eye to global themes that
influence all of us," says the agency about the design, which won
first prize in the innovation category at the 2011 Caribbean
Construction Awards.